PPC Keyword Match Types

The choice of your keyword match type can have a huge impact on the performance of your campaigns. Having all your keywords in broad match type can bring you the most traffic, but resulting in high cost per conversion; whereas having every keyword in exact match type can definitely filter out most of the unwanted traffic, but you will also be missing out on some of the long-tailed search queries that broad match or phrase match can bring in.

The table below briefly summarizes the different match types available in the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN). The info is gathered from the help section of each search engine.

1. Broad Match - Triggers the ad when individual words in your keyword appear, in any order, in a user's search query. Your ads could also show for singular/plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations.

In Google Boad Match is available.

In Yahoo Broad Match is not available.

In MSN Broad Match is available.

2. Phrase Match - Triggers the ad if the word or words in your keyword appear in a user's search query with the words in the exact order, even if other words are present in the search query.

In Google Pharase Match is available.

In Yahoo Phrase Match is not available.

In MSN Phrase Match is available.

3. Exact Match - Triggers the ad only when the exact word or words in your keyword, in exactly the same order, and without any other terms, appear in a user's search query.

In Google Exact Match is available.

In Yahoo Exact Match is not available.

In MSN Exact Match is available.

4. Negative Match - Adding a negative keyword to your ad group, campaign, or account means that your ads won't show for search queries containing that term.

In Google Negative Match is available.

In Yahoo Negative Match is available.

In MSN Negative Match is available.

5.Standard Match Type - Only available in Yahoo. This works the same way as Exact Match in Google and MSN.

In Google Standard Match Type is not available.

In Yahoo Standard Match Type is available.

In MSN Standard Match Type is not available.